OLPC XO-3 Tablet Delayed Until February Due To Search For Unbreakable Material

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In a recent interview at the MIT Media Lab, OLPC chairman Nicholas Negroponte said that they would not in fact be able to show off their new XO-3 tablet at CES, but had been delayed 45 days (he used the exact number) by their search for an unbreakable material, presumably for the display.

He said that the material, which they have obviously not settled on yet (which makes his 45-day figure suspicious), may be plastic or some “flavor” of glass — so something like the hardened glass used by Apple and others is an option. Though I wouldn’t call Apple’s glass unbreakable.

As we heard, the initial run of devices, for release in non-developing countries (while cost to manufacture is still relatively high, I supposed), will be Marvell-branded, though Negroponte was not confident that the haptic keyboard on the tablet would be sufficient for anything but basic use. At $75, I’m not really expecting a full computer anyway.